CBS: House Oversight Committee to take first steps on contempt charge against Holder on Fast & Furious

posted at 10:41 am on May 3, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

The fight between House Republicans, the Department of Justice, and the White House over Operation Fast and Furious will escalate this morning, according to CBS News. The House Oversight Committee will take the first steps to charging Attorney General Eric Holder with contempt of Congress over continued stonewalling of demands for documentation and testimony on the disastrous ATF operation that led to the death of at least one Border Patrol agent and hundreds of people in Mexico:

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has circulated a lengthy pair of documents making the case for holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his “refusal” to cooperate in an investigation of the ill-fated Fast and Furious operation.

Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Thursday sent to every member of his committee a 64-page draft contempt order against Holder as well as a 17-page memo outlining the history of the scandal.

“Operation Fast and Furious’ outrageous tactics, the Justice Department’s refusal to fully cooperate with the investigation and efforts to smear and retaliate against whistleblowers have tainted the institutional integrity of the Justice Department,” Issa wrote.

According to Fox, Issa won’t call for a vote on the charge — yet. The draft states that the committee has subpoenaed documents in 22 categories, and that Holder and the DoJ have yet to produce a single document in 12 of 22 categories. The question will be whether Issa can get the votes to take this next step, but it’s doubtful that Issa would have begun circulating a draft if he didn’t feel comfortable with his position.

A release from the Oversight Committee details the specifics:

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has distributed a staff briefing paper and draft of the contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder to Members of the Oversight Committee. The briefing paper explains what happened in Operation Fast and Furious, the hardships faced by the family of fallen Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in getting truthful answers about his death, how agents who blew the whistle on the reckless operation have faced retaliation, and the carnage in Mexico that Fast and Furious has helped fuel.

“This briefing paper and draft contempt report explains the case, to both Members of the Committee and the American people, for holding Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress,” said Issa. “In describing the results of the Justice Department’s refusal to cooperate – including the hardships the family of a fallen Border Patrol agent have faced in seeking the truth, and retaliation against agents who blew the whistle on gunwalking – this briefing paper provides the facts, on which decisions will be made.”

Highlights of the briefing paper include:

On information sharing failures (p.6):
“When [firearms trafficking syndicate ringleader] Celis-Acosta informed ATF of the names of the two cartel contacts for whom he had been working, agents quickly came to learn that these two U.S.-based cartel contacts were already known to the Department of Justice … In exchange for one associate’s guilty plea to a minor charge of “Alien in Possession of a Firearm,” both of these cartel associates became FBI informants and were considered essentially unindictable well before Operation Fast and Furious concluded. One ATF official would later say that the discovery that the primary targets of their investigation were not indictable was a “major disappointment.” Adding to the information-sharing failure, DEA had actually provided Celis-Acosta’s cartel connection to ATF in December 2009 in an effort to ensure that ATF’s efforts in Operation Fast and Furious were not duplicative.”

On the Justice Department’s Failure to Cooperate (p.9):

“When the Committee issued a subpoena to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on October 12, 2011, for Justice Department documents, the Committee specified 22 categories of documents it required the Department to produce. Department representatives specifically confirmed their understanding of each category. To date, the Department has not produced any responsive documents for 12 of the 22 categories. The Department has not completely fulfilled any of the 10 categories for which documents have been produced. For over a year, the Department has issued false denials, given answers intended to misdirect investigators, sought to intimidate witnesses, unlawfully withheld subpoenaed documents, and waited to be confronted with indisputable evidence before acknowledging uncomfortable facts.”

On the struggle of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s family to get the truth (p. 11):

“While the Justice Department’s admissions have largely come as a result of being confronted with indisputable facts, the painfully slow process of getting the truth has been a continuing frustration for the Terry family. They still do not have the all the facts about the circumstances surrounding Brian Terry’s murder …. As Brian’s sister said of his family’s desire to know the full truth, ‘Brian was about making a difference and justice. And I just feel that this country owes it to him, because he spent his whole life fighting for this country some way or another.’”

On Retaliation Faced by Agents who blew the whistle (p.13):

“Agent Alt notified his superiors about his impending testimony. The next day, ATF Internal Affairs notified Alt that they wanted to talk with him about another matter. On May 5, 2011, Agent Alt met with ATF internal affairs investigators about allegations that Alt downloaded two prohibited applications to his government-issued phone. The total cost of these applications was eight dollars …. Alt was prevented from transferring offices and his eligibility for promotions and pay raises barred during the pendency of the investigation – all supposedly over eight dollars in phone applications.”

On Fast and Furious fueling violence in Mexico (p. 15):

“In October 2010, cartel members kidnapped Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez, the brother of the Attorney General for the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where Juarez is located. The cartel posted a video of the kidnapped Rodriguez online, in which he alleged, under duress, that his sister had ordered killings at the behest of the Juarez cartel. The video went viral and became a major news story in Mexico. Two weeks later, Mexican authorities found Rodriguez’s body in a shallow grave. In a subsequent shootout with cartel members responsible for the murder, police arrested eight and recovered sixteen weapons. Two of these weapons traced back to Operation Fast and Furious. Although the Department of Justice learned that these weapons traced back to Fast and Furious almost immediately, no one informed the Mexican government. Not until congressional investigators were on the verge of learning the truth about the connection did an ATF agent in Mexico finally tell the Mexican Attorney General in June 2011 – seven months after Rodriguez’s murder.”

On allegations of intentional wrongdoing by Justice officials (p. 17):

“Perhaps the most damning assessments of the Department’s handling of the fallout from Operation Fast and Furious have come from two Justice Department officials. Kenneth Melson, the former Acting AFT Director during the pendency of Fast and Furious, told Congress that, “it appears thoroughly to us that the department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the department.” Patrick Cunningham, who had been tasked by the Justice Department with investigating ATF whistleblower allegations of gunwalking, would later invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions about his work.”

Will the contempt citation push the DoJ into greater transparency? I wouldn’t bet that way, but the White House won’t want this in court, either, where a judge could order the release of a lot more than the administration would like. Brinksmanship just got a little more brink-ish.

Blowback

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“Operation Fast and Furious’ outrageous tactics, the Justice Department’s refusal to fully cooperate with the investigation and efforts to smear and retaliate against whistleblowers have tainted the institutional integrity of the Justice Department,” Issa wrote.

Most transparent administration, evah! Most transparently corrupt, inept, stupid, evil, contemptuous, and any other adjective you care to come up with to describe the children who currently occupy positions at the highest levels of government. Please, people, put the adults back in charge in November.

I don’t doubt Rep. Issa willingness to do the hard work (because they’ve proven that by running with the investigation of DOJ & F&F) but honestly, unless Holder is removed from office (frankly the top 3 dogs at DOJ need to be sent packing) nothing will change and if nothing else more mud will be thrown at the GOP.

Issa has been moving way too slowly. This is dragging on so long that they will never finish before the election. This is not normal. Issa has been slow-jamming the prosecution for 2 years now.

cane_loader on May 3, 2012 at 10:51 AM

I suspect this is just being used as a club to beat Obama with to damage his poll numbers as oppposed to a serious attempt to have justice done. Holder should have been in jail and Obama should have been facing potential impeachment proceedings over this months ago.

Will the contempt citation push the DoJ into greater transparency? I wouldn’t bet that way, but the White House won’t want this in court, either, where a judge could order the release of a lot more than the administration would like. Brinksmanship just got a little more brink-ish.

“I swear this all happened behind my back, as I was filming my Meerkat Special on BHO, er HBO network!
I swear I will go into private practice after November! I found a partner”.
- Eric Holder
CEO, Weiner-Holder Associates (Ass.s for short)

Nopey. The artical seems to be hinting at an overabundance of caution and some hesitation on Issa’s behalf.
I am glad he’s moving forward ( gotta use the word) with this, but he is taking his time.
“If you shoot at the king, you better not miss” process ?

Holder and his boss are just buying time….till after Nov. If Scooter wins re-election, it will all go away. If he loses, it won’t matter, because criminal charges will never be filed. Considering the speed with which these hearings have proceeded, and Boehner’s jelly like spine, they have a good chance of success.

Will the contempt citation push the DoJ into greater transparency? I wouldn’t bet that way, but the White House won’t want this in court, either, where a judge could order the release of a lot more than the administration would like. Brinksmanship just got a little more brink-ish.

A Federal Judge siding against his boss? Isn’t going to happen. This is a battle that will have to be played out in a very public manner.

House Oversight Committee to take first steps on contempt charge against Holder on Fast & Furious

WAY TOO LATE!!! Janet Reno’s Waco and Ruby Ridge attacks on US citizens showed what happens when there is no effective Congressional oversight of the (cynically named) “Justice Department”.

Continued oversight failure led to escalation from simple protection of blatant voter fraud, to discrimination against Caucasians, and now to the arming of criminals and the subsequent murder of hundreds of US and Mexican citizens.

Issa has been moving way too slowly. This is dragging on so long that they will never finish before the election. This is not normal. Issa has been slow-jamming the prosecution for 2 years now.

cane_loader on May 3, 2012 at 10:51 AM

Look, he is investigating, requests documents, Holder/DOJ refuse to turn over the docs. To build a case where the contempt charge will stick takes time. The ends of justice are what’s important here, not how much this affects Obama’s electoral chances.

This is dragging on so long that they will never finish before the election.

cane_loader on May 3, 2012 at 10:51 AM

.
I think that’s the point – the timing will take news cycles away from the latest Øbama deflection of the week and bring the focus back to Øbama’s record and the atrocious behavior of Holder (who is penalty-proof because of Øbama’s pardon capabilities) and the Øbama DoJ.

He’s much more likely to face justice if Romney is elected than while O is still in office.

Bitter Clinger on May 3, 2012 at 11:15 AM

??? You think Romney’s going to criminally prosecute him after he’s out of office? I don’t see that at all. Romney has some Bush 41 in him, and its all a club. I’d be pleasantly surprised…. but surprised!

Romney has some Bush 41 in him, and its all a club. I’d be pleasantly surprised…. but surprised!

cane_loader on May 3, 2012 at 11:18 AM

Romney has neither Bush nor Reagan in him. He is an opportunist. In fact, most successful business people are. His goal will likely be to establish his personal legacy. What this legacy is will depend on the Congress.

??? You think Romney’s going to criminally prosecute him after he’s out of office? I don’t see that at all. Romney has some Bush 41 in him, and its all a club. I’d be pleasantly surprised…. but surprised!

cane_loader on May 3, 2012 at 11:18 AM

I said more likely, not definitely. But he stands zero chance of being prosecuted under Obama.

I am actually for the pace of this. 6 mins left in the game,down by 5, and 99 yds left to go…run the ball, run the clock, score with 25 secs left..translated: File the charges late-September and slowly squeeze the throat so voters will have one more thing that is fresh on their mind in the voting booth.

Unless Issa can roll out Contempt of Congress charges (why not they did it for a baseball player) by mid-Summer, Holder/Obama have very little to worry about.

Holder could always be pardoned by the President; whether or not he makes it past re-election. If anything, i think Obama would write a hell of a lot more of them if he looses in Nov than even Clinton did…and for a lot more “shady” characters too.

Do not be surprised if Holder & even Pvt Manning would be pardoned/Executive Clemency by Obama…

When Congress issues a citation for contempt, the DOJ enforces it. Since we can’t expect the DOJ to take itself to court, Congress is going to have to come up with another enforcement mechanism.

The acting IG of the DOJ was Cynthia Schnedar. She was a long-time Holder crony, and was stalling her “investigation” while she leaked what she had found to Holder and his allies. A new IG was confirmed at the end of March, Michael Horowitz, but of course he will need to get up to speed on Schnedar’s “investigation”, and in any case anyone the Obama administration would nominate for IG is unlikely to do anything other than provide cover.

Charges filed are way overue; however, where are the Felony charges for Perjury both in oral testimony before a Congressional Committee and in written form (which he was allowed to rescind, correct, and resubmit instead)?!

Issa has been moving way too slowly. This is dragging on so long that they will never finish before the election. This is not normal. Issa has been slow-jamming the prosecution for 2 years now.

It may seem long but in lawyer time not really considering the things that Issa is working on in addition to this. He has to built a “bulletproof” case against Holder to make this stick. This is big time and if he gets Holder out and damages this obviously corrupt Administration I say no time is too long if the results are what this country needs.

I think I like the approach that Issa is using. While it would do my heart (and blood pressure) good to see Holder led away in handcuffs, we need to keep something in mind. Until Obama leaves office, he retains the ability to PARDON.

I would prefer that Issa draw this out all summer (forcing the media to cover it) and then wait to put Holder in handcuffs until after the pardon can be circumvented. But they MUST throw the book at them(!) afterwards!

Kinda miss ole crr6. The newer trolls don’t compare. She disappeared not too long after I questioned whether or not she was actually a law school student, based on a couple of her posts. Don’t know that it had anything to do with her departure, and in any case, it isn’t against the law to impersonate a law school student.

But the new trolls tend to spew bile and hate and not much else. They make crr6 and ernesto look like geniuses engaged in civil discussion.

Spread this news around on blogs, forums, Facebook, and every other social media platform.

It is not to be forgotten that that hundreds of Hispanic Catholics have died as the result of FAF and are still be killed by guns so willingly placed in the hands of cartels by Obama, Clinton, Holder, and Napolitano.

On June 1 Jose Pablo Barroso’s epic For Greater Glory is being released to movie theaters every where. It is about the Cristero War fought by Catholics against the atheist regime of President Calles 1926-1929 in Mexico.

31 of the Cristeros have been beatified by recent popes. 8 of them appear in the film. These martyrs are the brothers and sisters of Jaime Zapata, Brian Terry, and the hundreds of victims of Obama’s scandal.

Spread the news around.

And then it’s on to the Republican convention in Tampa at the end of August.

I understand that folks are impatient but Issa is doing it the right way. He can’t afford to overreach or make a claim he can’t support with irrefutable evidence, or he will give support to Holder’s “political witch hunt” meme. He has Democrats on the committee doing everything in their power to undermine the investigation. And he has the problem of enforcing subpoenas against the agency whose job it is to enforce congressional subpoenas.

I don’t think he is blind to the political timing, either. I fully expect this pot to go on the boil as the election approaches. We aren’t going to get any substantial answers from the DOJ so long as Holder is in charge, but I won’t be surprised if Issa has him roasting on a spit over a fire come October.

When Congress issues a citation for contempt, the DOJ enforces it. Since we can’t expect the DOJ to take itself to court, Congress is going to have to come up with another enforcement mechanism.

The acting IG of the DOJ was Cynthia Schnedar. She was a long-time Holder crony, and was stalling her “investigation” while she leaked what she had found to Holder and his allies. A new IG was confirmed at the end of March, Michael Horowitz, but of course he will need to get up to speed on Schnedar’s “investigation”, and in any case anyone the Obama administration would nominate for IG is unlikely to do anything other than provide cover.

novaculus on May 3, 2012 at 11:41 AM

Congress gets it own prosecutor/lawyer; the matter goes before the 3rd, independent branch of government, the courts. And the House doesn’t need the Senate for this.

And then there’s that special thing the Democrats established for Watergate: Special Prosecutor.

The mechanism is there. The question is the will of each branch to enforce or legally resist attacks on the checks in the Constitution.

Watergate was literally a Sunday School picnic compared to this mess and Richard Nixon was Sir Thomas More compared to this President and his Chicago thugs and thieves. But Republicans don’t get rewarded for pushing enforcement, do they? It’s like the “crusify” theology of the EPA and it obviously works.

Congress has enforcement options, but they do take time. The way the current special prosecutor law is written, Holder decides when one is needed. So there will need to be some new legislation to go that route. I still haven’t heard much from Issa and company on how they will proceed.

I made an inquiry to Congressman Gowdy’s office about this issue. He isn’t my congressman, but he seems to me to have the best grasp of the law and the facts, not to mention the best skills at cross-examination. I’m hoping that someone from his office will get back to me. One of his staffers told me they would.

You would think a program brought forth by the Obama administration that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people would be taken more seriously by the democrats that claim to care so much for the “99%”.
Instead they are circling the wagons to protect their “1%’s” in the White House.
How Progressive!!!!!

The question here is entirely what kind of cojones the GOP in Congress has. The leadership will look first for a way around a pitched confrontation. It will take serious brass to ram this through. We’ll see what develops.

Holder has been one of his most loyal lieutenants. Holder has pushed Obama’s agenda harder than anyone else from their position of power.

Holder has also been quite effective pushing Obama’s agenda (while ignoring the actual duties of Attorney General for the whole United States).

So, does he keep Holder and allow him to push more of his radical agenda or does he see him as a threat to reelection efforts and throw him under the bus?

I’m betting the narcissist throws him under the bus pretty soon.

ButterflyDragon on May 3, 2012 at 11:17 AM

I don’t agree, because He and Holder have the same goal in mind in regards to F&F. Holder knows too much i.e. everything.

0bamessiah trying to throw him under the bus would be like how it was for Clinton when he expected Ron Brown to fall on the sword. Is Holder like Brown, or Webster Hubbell? Watching this unfold will be very entertaining! :)

Our current unspeakable of the House has proved up his lack of courage to often, it may take a revolt by the Republicans in the House to over come that problem.

The RNC itself is useless.

We here in Texas had one member who was on the RNC for some time, Jenna Parker. She made a motion in several RNC meetings about illegal immigration as a problem. She was never able to even get a second to her motion to even get a disscussion going.

The lack of courage is in total coverage at the leadership level with the current Republicans.

I think I like the approach that Issa is using. While it would do my heart (and blood pressure) good to see Holder led away in handcuffs, we need to keep something in mind. Until Obama leaves office, he retains the ability to PARDON.

I would prefer that Issa draw this out all summer (forcing the media to cover it) and then wait to put Holder in handcuffs until after the pardon can be circumvented. But they MUST throw the book at them(!) afterwards!

0bamessiah trying to throw him under the bus would be like how it was for Clinton when he expected Ron Brown to fall on the sword. Is Holder like Brown, or Webster Hubbell? Watching this unfold will be very entertaining! :)